Lucknow: A court in Muzaffarnagar on Monday sentenced two retired Uttar Pradesh police constables to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting a woman protester in the 1994 Rampur Tiraha case.
Milap Singh and Virendra Pratap were held guilty by the court three days ago under IPC sections of “gang rape, insulting the modesty of a woman and sexual harassment”.
“Both the accused were sentenced to life and a fine of Rs 50,000 each by the court of additional district and sessions judge, Shakti Singh,” said district government counsel Rajeev Sharma.
The case was registered against the two cops under IPC sections 376-(2)(g), 509 and 354, and a chargesheet was later submitted by CBI to the court, said additional district government counsel.
Milap Singh belongs to Horchi village under Nidhauli Kalan police station in Etah district and Virendra Pratap is from Gauri village in Siddharthnagar district. They were posted in the 41st PAC battalion in Ghaziabad and were in their early 30s at the time of the crime on the night of Oct 1. Their battalion was deployed in Muzaffarnagar.
The survivor, a resident of present-day Uttarakhand, was travelling to Delhi on Oct 1, 1994, by a UP Roadways bus full of protesters, including several women, to participate in a rally called by Uttarakhand Sangharsh Samiti the next day. The bus reached Rampur Tiraha in Muzaffarnagar district around 1am and some police personnel, while trying to prevent them from going any further, broke the window glass and headlights, and used abusive language, said Sharma.
The woman in her complaint alleged that two police officers boarded the bus and sexually assaulted her. They also took away her gold chain and money, the complaint said.
